‘Music and Musicians of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter’ Set Jan. 27

AUSTRIAN COMPOSER Charles Abeles, standing at the far right with no instrument, conducted the orchestra at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in this photograph by refugee sculptor Miriam Sommerberg. Photograph from the Ehrenstamm Collection at Fort Ontario State Historic Site.

“A people who lives, sings; a people who sings, lives.”Ontario Chronicle, 15 May 1945

OSWEGO – In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day Sunday, Jan. 27, Musicologist Marilynn Smiley, Ph.D, will present a special program on the “Music and Musicians of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter.”

MARILYN SMILEY, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of the State University of New York at Oswego, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in Musicology. Dr. Smiley retired in 2014 after 40 years of teaching with the title of distinguished teaching professor at SUNY Oswego.

The program will be held at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Francis Marion Brown Theatre in Fort Ontario Park, Oswego.

The Oswego program is one of many International Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies and commemorative events occurring worldwide.

The 1½-hour program is free and open to the public, and there will be plenty of free parking.

Dr. Smiley is Emeritus Professor of the State University of New York at Oswego.

She has conducted extensive research on the music and musicians of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario State Historic Site, the Safe Haven Museum and Education Center, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Archives, and other repositories of refugee shelter records and artifacts.

During World War II, Fort Ontario served as the only refugee camp or shelter for mostly Jewish victims of the Holocaust in the United States.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was established by the United Nations as a Memorial Day for victims of the Holocaust; it is observed annually on Jan. 27, the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp of World War II.

“Music was an important part of the lives of the refugees,” said Fort Ontario Historic Site Manager Paul Lear. “Several refugees were professional musicians who had held prominent positions in Europe, and many were talented amateurs, all eager to perform. Concerts, recitals, operas, plays, and other programs were presented regularly at the fort theatre, and were attended by refugees, Oswegonians and others.”

Refugee musicians also gave programs for local churches, clubs, schools, and other organizations.

AUSTRIAN REFUGEES Robert Feilbogen, playing the piano, and Otto Presser who emceed many of the musical events at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, are shown in this photograph by refugee sculptor Miriam Sommerberg. Photograph from the Ehrenstamm Collection at Fort Ontario State Historic Site.

Programs were performed by talented pianists, singers (opera, classical, popular and cabaret), chamber ensembles, a small orchestra, and choirs of different religions and nationalities.

Some of Abeles’ piano pieces will be performed by Juan Francisco Lamanna, Professor of the Music Department at SUNY Oswego.

Songs by Abeles will be sung by Leon Carapetyan, Emeritus Professor of the SUNY Oswego Music Department.

A second composer among the refugees was Leon Levitch from Yugoslavia, who was just a teenager at Fort Ontario, but wrote choral music for the shelter’s youth choir.

A recording of some of his numbers sung by the State Singers at SUNY Oswego will be played.

Levitch later settled in California where he composed chamber and orchestral music and had a distinguished career as a piano technician at UCLA.

“The musical contributions of the refugees were quite impressive,” said Lear. “As was stated in the May 17, 1945 issue of the shelter newspaper published by the residents, the Ontario Chronicle, ‘A people who lives, sings; a people who sings, lives.’”

The Francis Marion Brown Theatre is located in the old red brick Army Quartermaster Storehouse (Building 30) at the north end of East Fourth Street in Fort Ontario Park, Oswego.

Seating is limited to the first 100 persons.

For more information on the program, Fort Ontario, and the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, contact Lear at (315) 343-4711, or e-mail [email protected]

The Safe Haven Museum and Education Center, located nearby at 2 E. Fourth St., is open year-round and is dedicated to interpreting the history of the refugee shelter.

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